GAINING CONTROL |T.RAEKEN

XXII. erased

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
ERASED

"why would i want to ruin your yearbook photo?" stiles asked malia who jumped up on the school bench and sat down.

"maybe because you haven't signed up for your own photo yet?" malia guessed with an annoyed face because stiles kept on ruining her yearbook photos over and over again. "val, tell your brother to leave me alone and sign up for his own photo!"

"stiles-" valencia started but was quickly cut off by her brother.

"i already have," stiles stared with wide eyes at valencia in betrayal before whipping out a piece of paper from his pocket side and unfolding it. he held out a form and valencia looked down at it.

"it's blank!" both valencia and malia exclaimed at the same time. the two girls turned to high five each other with a bright smile. stiles looked down at the form that wasn't filled out and he stuttered.

"or maybe you're sublimating the stress of graduating by avoiding key milestones," scott looked up from his books. scott looked around and realised everyone staring at him, "psych paper." lydia scratched her neck and nodded her head in realisation.

"come on, stiles. it's our last semester of senior year!" valencia tilted her head and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, while looking down at her phone, "fill the form out."

"hey, the deputy searched the car." stiles informed the group and valencia looked up at him confused. "oh yeah, forgot to tell you. um so liam and hayden were stuck in the middle of the forest and a car came from the trees with a boy in the back. scott did his werewolf stuff and he looked into his memories. there were these guys in masks and they took his parents."

"hmm, guys in masks sounds pretty familiar to me." valencia hummed and stiles smacked her over the head. "hey! what was that for? if anyone gets to joke about the dread doctors it's clearly me. i am the one who was tortured, threw in a cave, became dangerously ill, died, and came back to life with no memories of my loved ones and new, mysterious powers."

the group stared over at their best friend with their mouths hung open slightly, watching as valencia let out a chuckle. though, they shook it off because they knew that dark humour was valencia's thing.

"well anyways..." stiles moved back to what he was talking about before. "no slugs, no exit hole. and the address alex gave my dad, it's an abandoned house. come on! missing parents, suspicious guy on horseback, magic bullet. who's comin' with?"

"i've got to retake my photos." malia told the boy, shooting him a dirty look to which he let out a sigh.

"yeah... not interested." lydia shook her head dismissively at stiles.

"i cannot miss any more classes," scott said when stiles eyes moved onto him and stiles did not seem too impressed with the mccall boy on the bench.

"scott."

"i missed 38 last semester," scott raised his eyebrow and shook his head at his best friend.

"scott."

"and lydia's mum is the only reason i'm still in school," scott looked over to the red-headed banshee with a thankful smile to which she nodded her head. "i can go after school."

"you know what? forget it. i'll take liam." stiles held his hands up and turned his head towards where he saw the boy sitting before. all heads turned in the direction of liam, only to see the boy making out with hayden.

"yeah, i'm not taking liam." stiles placed his hands on his hips and took his eyes away from the couple sitting on the benches as people walked by giving them weird stares.